Earlier this week, another left-leaning blog published a ridiculous story about trackers following Morgan Carroll in Washington, D.C. as if the GOP is terrified of her candidacy for the Sixth Congressional. (We’re not – we beg for Morgan Carroll as a candidate.) All of this is simply a campaign to help Carroll’s sputtering star shine just a bit brighter. Here why – she’s not really the candidate that Democrats want in CD6. And, she knows that.

While Carroll traipses around Washington, D.C., Democrats are really courting a lesser-known, but perhaps more polished (read: richer) candidate in Jeff Bridges. If the name Bridges rings a bell, it should. Jeff Bridges is the son of Gang of Four player Rutt Bridges. Word on the street that Rick Palacio, chair of the Colorado Democratic Party, is begging and pleading with Bridges to return to Colorado to run in CD6. (Of course, Palacio has his own issues as there is apparently a special meeting to cut his salary after he raised his pay and rigged his election.)

But, who is Jeff Bridges besides the son of a rich guy who ran for governor? First, it’s helpful to know that he doesn’t live in Colorado, and to the best of our knowledge, and according to LinkedIn, he’s living in Manhattan. If voters dinged Andrew Romanoff for having trouble finding his way from Denver to Aurora, they should know that the route from Manhattan to Aurora is far longer – literally and figuratively.

In New York City, he’s the head of public affairs at Union Theological Seminary, an off-shoot of Columbia University. Oddly enough, he was listed as one of the media contacts two weeks ago, but is no longer listed.

His website provides a great overview of who he is. But, does he sound that much different than Andrew Romanoff? Bridges attended Harvard Divinity School. You know, just like all those folks in Aurora. Wait. No, not really. In fact, it looks like nearly every job he’s every had has been a political one.

It’s not that he’s a bad guy or that people who work in politics are bad people (wait…), but how well will Bridges identify with the average voter in Adams County? Perhaps the salt-of-the-earth voters in Adams County and Bridges can swap tales of debauchery at Cambridge, or that time they were both in Politico. No, that has little to do with the struggles that folks in Adams County are dealing with on a daily basis. Colorado voters said loud and clear that they were done with dynasties (looking at you, Mark Udall). Democrats are waiting for Bridges, voters want a representative who will understand their plight, and nobody but Morgan Carroll wants Morgan Carroll.

Nobody, but us, that is. We would delight in a Morgan Carroll CD6 candidacy. Pretty please?

With just two years of Spanish instruction, Representative Mike Coffman puts many of us to shame after our four years of Spanish in school. His landmark all-Spanish debate in 2014 with Andrew Romanoff was a first in Colorado history, and he certainly seemed dedicated to reaching out to the large Hispanic demographic in the district.

For those who dismissed Rep. Coffman’s Hispanic outreach as survivalist campaign tactics in his ethnically diverse district, the joke is on you. Today, Coffman is just as engaged with his Spanish skills as he is with his constituents. He can be spotted during the day with a Spanish book close at hand and still chats with a tutor during the week. And, no, that tutor is not Andrew Romanoff, who taught English in Spanish-speaking countries.

Coffman’s significant constituent outreach yielded a much better understanding of the complexities of our broken immigration system. He admits he has modified his views, but as our representative system of government is supposed to work, he modified his views based on bona fide feedback from the very people he represents. As he told Fox News Latino:

“We need a system where people can go back and forth, bring them out of the shadows, let them work here. We need to get something done on immigration reform, something that is aligned with our economic needs, and we need to be compassionate about keeping families together. It’s important going into 2016.”

There are few politicians who would so fully embrace a major shift in their constituencies as Rep. Coffman did when his district changed dramatically. In fact, we’re still waiting for Reps. Perlmutter and Degette to show us their Spanish language skills as they, too, have large Spanish-language constituencies. But, maybe that’s why Coffman is considered one of the hardest working Representatives in office.

On Monday, Mental Health America of Colorado publicly welcomed former Colorado Speaker of the House Andrew Romanoff as its new CEO. If the leap from former congressional candidate to mental health leader seems a bit abrupt, you’re right. But, that’s not the only jarring job change Romanoff has hopped to during his career. Let’s look at the timeline.

According to Romanoff himself, the last clear-cut (read: real) job he’s ever had was back in the 1980s, when his task was to research the Ku Klux Klan while working for the Southern Poverty Law Center. After that, his career is more confusing.

For instance, there’s his time at the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, where “he sent African-American and white ‘spies’ with matching credentials to try to get jobs at top firms,” according to The Denver Post and taught English to kids in developing countries, which is usually reserved for that gender studies major who can’t land that first job out of college. Here’s a bit more of his timeline from the Broomfield Enterprise:

1999-2005: At this point, Romanoff held a variety of what could be described as patronage jobs “odd jobs” teaching at the University of Colorado Denver, the Community College of Denver, Metropolitan State College of Denver, and Red Rocks Community College. The subjects? No clue. Simultaneously, he juggled his time as a state legislator, until he finally became a “full-time” politician as the speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives.

After a failed senatorial bid in 2010, he hopped over to a completely different industry, joining a Lakewood nonprofit called International Development Enterprises (IDE), helping farmers get access to better trade technology. Romanoff described IDE’s signature irrigation pump using the highly-technical analogy to a StairMaster. Sounds like an expert for sure.

Now that he has tried and failed again to return to politics, Romanoff’s announcement that he’s taking the helm of another, entirely unrelated organization is a new puzzle. While he cites the death of a close family member as prompting him to accept the role (our sincere sympathies), that only seems to qualify him as a passionate supporter of mental health programming, not as a leading influencer in the field or a subject matter expert. Based on his resume, we have to wonder what he can bring to the table from experience, and more importantly, where he’ll bounce to next. Or, perhaps this gig is simply a placeholder for his next political opportunity.

In the hours before hosting the bitter and divisive U.S. Senator Al Franken as the honored guest at the Jefferson-Jackson Day fundraising dinner, Colorado Democrats faced what was either a lack of real options, or simple delusion, and re-elected State Chair Rick Palacio and Vice Chairs Beverly Ryken and Barbara Jones at their bi-annual state organizational meeting. The leadership will serve two year terms, which will carry the Colorado Democratic Party through the critical 2016 elections.

Coming off catastrophic losses in 2014, in which Mark Udall become the first sitting U.S. Senator to lose re-election in Colorado since 1978, the Colorado State Senate flipped to Republican control for the first time in a decade, Andrew Romanoff lost one of the tightest and most expensive Congressional campaigns in the nation, and all three of the Colorado state constitutional offices below the Governor went to Republicans, most reasonable observers would expect some change at the top. Most reasonable participants would demand change.

Instead, it appears that Colorado Democrats doubled down on their failed leadership and flawed agenda. And, Democratic activists are not happy, as some of the comments on Facebook noted:

“And the party continues to sink.”

“Tim Gill still has control of the party. Blue is officially the new Red.”

“The Tammany Hall of the West.” (very clever)

But you won’t find us complaining. With incumbent Senator Michael Bennet stumbling out of the blocks for his 2016 re-election campaign and knowing the key role that our state will play in any presidential contender’s electoral calculus, we welcome the complacency. Carry on liberals.

A new campaign finance complaint filed on Friday is threatening to blow up Democrats’ entire election model. The Democrats’ data hub, Catalist and an affiliated organization NGP VAN, have the honor of being the recipient of the first campaign finance complaint filed by a new conservative watch dog group, Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT). According to the Washington Free Beacon, Friday’s legal filing with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) outlined the following:

“Democrat data giant Catalist is providing below-market services for its ideological and partisan allies and providing a forum for those allies—which include political and policy groups that are legally required to operate independently—to coordinate their electoral and advocacy efforts.”

The crux of the complaint is two-fold. First, Catalist provided a forum for “political and policy groups that are legally required to operate independently…to coordinate their electoral and advocacy efforts” per the Washington Free Beacon. Second, that Catalist and NGP VAN are providing below-market rates for services and that the recipients of this “goodwill” did not disclose these lower rates as “in-kind contributions” as required.

If the name Catalist sounds vaguely familiar, it should. Catalist was a cornerstone of the suite of capabilities offered by the Colorado Democracy Alliance (CoDA), which then grew into the Democracy Alliance, as outlined in Rob Witwer and Adam Schrager’s The Blueprint. That’s why this campaign finance complaint is so meaningful. It’s also why the Jared Polis campaign’s inclusion in this complaint is delightful. If you recall, Polis was one of the four original funders of CoDA, along with Pat Stryker, Rutt Bridges, and Tim Gill.

Could this be the end of the era of Democrats flouting campaign finance rules? Who knows? But damn it feels good that someone is finally holding them accountable.

A recent Denver Post profile of Colorado State House Speaker Dickie Lee Hullinghorst might irritate some Democrats here in Colorado. While the profile was not horrible, it compared incoming Speaker Hullinghorst to (gasp) the reviled U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, one of the least-liked public figures in office right now. Here’s what The Post wrote:

Yet Hullinghorst, with her résumé deep in party politics and liberal causes, is the kind of party figurehead — like [U.S. Rep.] Nancy Pelosi — who fires up the base.

“Dickey Lee Hullinghorst is obviously a talented leader, but she strongly represents that liberal wing,” said Denver pollster Floyd Ciruli.

While The Post‘s assessment of Hullinghorst is accurate, a comparison to Pelosi is no compliment. Pelosi is one of the best known, least liked Members of Congress, according to polls. In fact, alignment with Pelosi is so toxic that the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) and Team Coffman turned two-time losing candidate Andrew Romanoff’s allegiance to Pelosi into a millstone around his neck.

Of course, Hullinghorst is from the liberal motherland, Boulder, and her constituents likely view this comparison favorably. They probably also viewed her role as liaison for U.S. Rep. Jared Polis’ anti-fracking, job killing ballot measures as a positive thing, too.

Unfortunately, now that Hullinghorst is the Speaker of the State House, she’s charged with setting the legislative agenda to an extent. As we mentioned in an earlier post, her election to this position sends a signal that the Democratic Party is still feeding the beast (aka, the far left wing). If Pelosi Hullinghorst drives the agenda as far left as she is, the 2015 legislative session could resemble 2013. To that we say, please, please, please. The self-inflicted wounds by Democrats that year were far worse than anything we could have said.

One would figure that in a year chock-full of campaigns, PolitiFact would have its choice of lies to choose for their annual “Lie of the Year.” Unfortunately for PolitiFact, it seems they have no imagination beyond Obamacare. In the previous four years that PolitiFact has been doing its “Lie of the Year,” three of them involved Obamacare. With Obamacare taking a backseat, PolitiFact was left scrambling; its improvisation left them naming Ebola as its biggest lie of year. While Ebola did come up in campaigns, it mostly came up as a very tertiary issue, one that might have been brought up as a filler question in a debate. But, instead of taking the easy way out and mocking PolitiFact’s legitimacy yet again, we here at the Peak rather are making our own list of the top lies of the Colorado 2014 election season.

That Bannock Street would save all Democrats:

The fact that the argument going on right now about Bannock Street is whether it actually worked or not despite Democrats losing pretty much every toss-up race across the country, is an argument Republicans are willing to lose. If it costs Democrats the majority in the U.S. Senate for Sen. Michael Bennet to have a moral victory, we’re willing to let him be first in line with St. Peter.

Romanoff/Coffman closest race in the country:

A nine-point differential, and another loss hung around Andrew Romanoff’s (D- Attach Forwarding Address Here) neck, and we feel safe declaring what many D.C. insider newspapers felt would be the closest race in America as the most errant storyline of this past election cycle.

Don Quick’s “serious” run for Attorney General:

Don Quick was so sure he was going to win that he decided to apply for other jobs even before his loss was made official on election night. We can’t blame Quick for thinking that way, he ended up losing by the second highest vote-getter of all candidates in Colorado this election cycle. Hell, maybe if he would have told us of his impending loss during his campaign, we would have actually trusted his judgment enough to vote him for Attorney General… we couldn’t even finish typing that all the way through while keeping a straight face.

What should be the first clue that Sen. Michael Bennet isn’t really one of us? Is it his elitist background? His East Coast childhood? His establishment brother? Or, the fact that Bennet doesn’t even really live in Colorado anymore? Well if you’re The Aurora Sentinel’s local gossiper, you can’t help but call Bennet out on the last one. As The Aurora Sentinelwrites:

A carefully worded statement from senior Colorado Sen. (and sometimes Colorado visitor) Michael Bennet should be our clue: “The VA should use this ruling to unlock reserve funds to complete this project in the most efficient and responsible manner possible.” Quid has heard for a while now that something like this may have been coming and/or necessary for the VA to tap money it needed in the first place to finish the hospital. If indeed the letter was a punt to push the ball into the VA’s court to get more money for the project, shame on them, KT and us for resorting to theatrics when it comes to our vets. Congressional approval is at an all-time low and if this is any indication of how business is done: it’s no wonder how we got here. [the Peak’s emphasis]

When that “sometimes Colorado visitor” isn’t writing pork-filled letters for a VA that can’t control it’s spending, Sen. Mumbles is flying around the country getting to know the liberal uber-rich. Don’t expect Bennet to be lacking in funds as he tries to wrap himself in the Colorado flag for his reelection bid.

Unfortunately for him, if a newspaper who endorsed any and every liberal that they could is calling him out for being a carpet-bagging hack, then he might have some issues passing muster with the rest of us.

But, don’t worry, we hear Bennet will soon have a snazzy new strategy named after the next street his campaign headquarters are located on, High Street. “Um, okay, ah, you see guys, um, I think, ah, that the secret to, ah, winning elections in, um, Colorado, is to really, ah, um, ah, um, um, ah, turn out the, um, pot vote. So, um, we’re going to, ah, do that, by talking, um, relentlessly, ah, um, about abortion.”

Then again, there’s no guarantee Bennet makes it to the general election. Isn’t Romanoff looking for something to run for again? Or, better yet, after Sen. Mark Udall recently remembered who he was, perhaps he wants a shot at the man whose strategy led to Udall’s soon-to-be unemployment.

So far, Rep. Mike Coffman is leading by 12 points, so we’re just going to go ahead and call it for Coffman. Those of us watching the battle for the 6th Congressional district had no illusions that this election would be anything but a victory for Rep. Mike Coffman. Not only is he just about the hardest working Congressman in the country, but when his district changed, he ramped up his outreach to groups that perhaps traditionally would not be considered Republican strongholds.

Take women, for example. He’s been a staunch supporter of women’s equality since the beginning of his career, fighting to erase gender-based healthcare coverage discrimination. He fought for better treatment of female victims of sexual assault in the military. Then, there are minority groups. He’s done a phenomenal job bridging language and cultural barriers among Hispanics and Asians in his district.

If Republicans want to learn how to win in swing districts – and there are few districts more up for grabs than CD6 – this is a model. Reach out to those who aren’t like you. Be a tireless advocate for all constituents, not just the base. Wear the leather off your shoes asking for their vote. And, to show why he deserved to win, here’s a super classy moment tweeted by the Duchess of Colorado Politics, Lynn Bartels:

Coffman has earned every vote he’s received and then some. He deserves congratulations, as does his team, for a job well done. To Democrats who would hope to unseat Coffman, this win is a big “Carpetbaggers beware” to all.